Taking Theodora to the Dark SideTransforming Theodora, the beautiful Mila Kunis, into a hideous hag as the Wicked Witch is a testament to
Berger's special effects makeup talents and dexterity.

The first part of the process was finding the right shade of green for the witch's skin. Like a mad scientist in his
lab, Berger began concocting his own formula for the perfect green. "It went from a super forest green to an
emerald green to more of a gray look," he recalls. "What we ended up with actually are some custom colors
that I mixed using these great tattoo shades combined with other makeup colors. We called our shade of green
'Theostein'."

Berger adds, "Mila has to wear contact lenses and dentures that dirty up her teeth, because her teeth are so
beautiful and white. However, the one thing I wanted to do in the makeup design was not lose Mila's lips and
eyes, which are really gorgeous."

While trying to keep that essence of Kunis under the witch makeup, the veteran makeup magician adds that
"Mila finds her face to be kind of oval, so we wanted to change that, achieving that with the length and
direction of the chin while raising up her cheek bones, making them feel more sculpted. There are actually four
different versions of Mila as the witch, very subtle changes as she evolves in the story."

"The process would take just under two hours," Kunis explains. "At first, it was silicon but Howard changed to
all foam in two pieces. After having my hair wrapped, they applied the prosthetic chin and cheek piece, then
the nose, forehead and eyebrow piece. Then, they painted me with the 'Theostein' so it's about a two-hour
process. After painting the hands and adding the wimple, it was insane and amazing!"
"Howard did a brilliant design for the Wicked Witch of the West," hails Raimi. "He started by using Mila's
face as a template without imposing some design that wouldn't work on her. He took his raw materials and
developed them, let them bloom on her, although it was a nasty, weedish bloom that we've got in the look of
this character, which developed beautifully. He developed her features into something wicked and twisted in
a fantastic way."

Adds Berger, "People are going to look at this and think it's a supercool witch. She's fantastic."